Canned pet foods of the meat chunk and gravy type have been in the marketplace for years. They can be used as a total diet for pets or as a supplement to a pet's daily rations. Generally, the chunks are pieces of meat or meat by-products which are formed. This is the primary content of the chunk. Also present in the chunk are usually grains and fibrous materials as well as vitamins and nutrients. These materials are generally present as the minor portion of the chunk. The gravy portion usually has a fluid characteristic and supplies aroma, palatability, and some additional nutritional properties to the food product such as additional vitamins, minerals, and the like. Also present in the market place are other discrete meaty forms in a discrete separate gravy product. These forms are sometimes known as "slices", that is where the discrete meat portion is somewhat elongated, as relatively flat as in a delicatessen sliced meat. As utilized throughout this specification and claims the term "chunk" shall include slices as well as any other discrete meat containing composition which is separate from the discrete gravy component of the diet. In each of these cases, the "chunks" are present with the gravy as a single unit, for example, sold in a container.
We have recently noted that the usage of meat chunk and gravy diets for animals, particularly canines, have a specific problem. In all of the canines tested with various marketed meat chunk and gravy diets as the sole diet for the canine, the animals encountered significant irregularity in fecal discharge. This is manifested by the appearance of loose, watery stools, or straight diarrhea when the animal defecates.
After a significant study, we have discovered the cause of this problem and a manner in which to essentially eliminate or substantially reduce the problem. This solution lies in the elimination or substantial reduction of certain materials utilized in the gravy portion of the diet, specifically, chemically modified starch(es), gum(s), and mixtures thereof.